I spent most of this week in Cleveland for a work conference with ~100 other people from all of the different NASA centers. We all support NASA’s Safety and Mission Assurance organization, but the range of programs and projects covered was quite broad — everything from the space station (my area) to the James Webb telescope to interplanetary missions to small satellites and payloads. It was pretty interesting, and a little overwhelming at times to be honest. There is a tendency to focus on your own work, especially in a place like NASA where we are very stovepiped according to assignment. And so I learned a lot by hearing from and talking to folks who support other projects, but also realized just how much I still don’t know about my own organization.
Overall, it was a good experience and I’m glad I was able to go. There were 11 of us that traveled from Houston, so I wasn’t alone, and I was even able to get together with my friend Kelly (who moved from Houston back to Cleveland about 6 years ago) on Wednesday night for dinner and ice cream.
And on a lighter note, I can now say that I’ve been chauffeured around Cleveland by an astronaut, so there’s that. Heh.
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Our hotel was less than a mile from Lake Erie, so I was able to enjoy two nice pre-dawn runs and one evening walk over to the shore to enjoy the view. The weather was lovely too — a nice taste of fall before coming back to always-sticky Houston!
I’m proud of myself for sticking to my training program even while on travel. After four weeks without missing a scheduled run, I did miss one — when I got up on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. it was very foggy outside, and since it was also dark and I was in an unfamiliar area, I chose to just go back to bed for another hour. But I ran Wednesday morning, and again yesterday before heading to the last day of the conference and then to the airport.
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I took some hand stitching with me on the trip as well — more pieces for my Pollinate Quilt! I only had time to work on it on the plane flights there and back, but it was nearly 3 hours each way and that turned out to be plenty of time to make some decent progress. I basted and stitched all five of the blue “pie-hexies” on the way, and then basted and started stitching the purple rosette on the way back yesterday evening.
I’ve still got a lonnnnng way to go on this project, of course, but it was the perfect thing to take along on a short trip.
Loved the Lake Erie pics! We lived in Cleveland for a few years, and I never tired of seeing the Lake. Glad you got there before the snow flies!
(related: when we lived there we once met a guy who worked at NASA – but he called it N-A-S-A instead of pronouncing it as a word. When he said that my husband responded, “I’ve never heard of that company.” When we realized what he meant: Facepalm!)
That’s funny! I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone who works there call is N-A-S-A…maybe he was just an odd one! Ha!